Nietzsche and Mercy/Power

There was one thing that bothered me when reading Nietzsche's second essay concerning guilt and bad conscience. In the essay, he talks about how mercy is the privilege of the most powerful or wealthy man, and in turn only the privileged are shown mercy. This fundamentally makes no sense to me. It seems that those who deserve mercy the most are the ones that have less. For instance, if in a city that is less powerful and wealthy, and a homeless man steals bread for his starving children, should he not be shown more mercy because of his situation? I see more of a need for mercy with a man such as this than a man who is in a powerful and wealthy society and who has the means to buy his own bread, but still steals such. Furthermore, is it actually a question of wealth at all at this point? I am a little confused as to what exactly he means by “powerful.” What marks a powerful society? Is it wealth, or something else, especially when thinking about his definition of good and evil in the first essay? How then is power defined?

There were two things that we have discussed about Nietzsche so far that have really piqued my interest firstly how he deals with intelligence and secondly how he deals with the actor and action. In the last class, as some people have pointed out, we spent a good chunk of time on intelligence in The Genealogy of Morals; on rather Nietzsche thought it was good or bad. It seems to me that to Nietzsche Intelligence is a sort of Non-factor when it comes to determining good or bad. He would argue that the way in which a person uses their intelligence could be used determining if they were slave or noble because a slave would be dependent on intelligence, in the form of cunning and deceit, to survive and get ahead in life. At the same time a noble could be strong and beautiful but also intelligent and use their intelligence as an additional tool to achieve their own self-interested goals. In addition we spent a lot of time on the way slaves came to see a separation between action and actor (the example of the lightning being separate from the flash was our primary example). In Nietzsche’s argument there is no separation the lightning is the flash it doesn’t cause it. Therefore if we develop this Nietzsche believes that a person is their actions and due to this morality is a false construct because there is no right or wrong course of action there is just whatever action happened. The actor cannot be held responsible for his actions because they are him; he did not choose to do them he just did them. What bothered me about this was if this is so how did the slavish people come to believe that there was a separation between actor and action. It seems like we are able to perceive making decisions about what action we take; it’s not like we are operating on autopilot and things just happen. I suppose that the way we perceive our choices is merely an illusion that we force on ourselves so as to feel better about our weak states but that seems like a stretch, no?

Intelligence

Last class, we discussed the conclusion we reached: that Nietzsche claims that intelligence is a characteristic of the weak. (I say “conclusion we reached” because I don’t think Nietzsche, himself, ever says anything about intelligence. As I recall he says that cunning, which we have equated with intelligence, is a characteristic of the weak.) As a result, a debate ensued. As I remember it, most of the students found this claim problematic, citing the many cases in which intelligence trumps physical strength, while Dr. J stood as Nietzsche’s lone defender.

As intriguing as this debate was, I think it was our own great philosophical error that rendered it so unsolvable. As I see it, the problem was that we failed to clearly define the term in question. This problematic move was made even more dubious by the fact that the term was intelligence, a word that has a lot of baggage tied to it. I think the truth of our conclusion is dependent on what we mean by intelligence.

In senior seminar, we recently read an essay by Kiersgaard. Embarrassingly, I can’t remember the title, but I do remember a very relevant distinction between reason and intelligence, a term that we were probably including in our hazy definition of intelligence. Kiersgaard defines intelligence as the ability to choose between different means to achieve some end. He explains that reason, on the other hand, is the ability to choose different ends. For instance, I exercise my intelligence when I try to figure out how to get food, while I exercise my reason when I decide that I’ll refrain from eating in order to study.
In light of this distinction, I think the conclusion we reached becomes more acceptable. In fact, it seems right to say that an Ubermensch would not have much development in this area—the area of moving between different means in order to achieve some end—because of the fact that he never faces any real opposition. He’s so strong that whatever end he employs successfully brings him to his goal. The weak, on the other hand, are constantly running into obstacles as they pursue their aims, and as a result, they have a highly developed capacity for selecting different means. Furthermore, I think it is important to note that intelligence is not a characteristic that is essential to the weak, but rather that it is one that developed as an accident of their weakness.

Despite all this, I don’t think Nietzsche would say the Ubermensch lacks reason. For being able to select what end one pursues despite his animal urges seems to be a sign of strength. Returning to my earlier example, the decision to postpone eating in order to study would require great strength.

Being and Beauty

In the last section that we read for Nietzsche, during the sixth section he discusses a Kantian conception of Aesthetics. I found Kant’s position on this quite interesting, but not as interesting as Nietzsche’s take on it. To make his point, Nietzsche talks about the way in which Kant talks about beauty. Nietzsche says, “Kant like all philosophers, instead of envisaging the aesthetic problem from the point of view of the artist (the creator,), considered art and the beautiful purely from that of the “spectator,”” In This way Nietzsche makes an Aesthetic revolution in the same way that Kant himself made a metaphysical revolution.

Nietzsche instead of relying on the concept of beauty totally from the perspective of the bystander looks at it from the perspective of the creator. Kant’s view of beauty also leads him to make the claim, “that is beautiful which gives us pleasure without interest.” Nietzsche turns this on its head and criticizes Kant. Nietzsche says that the interest that we have in a thing is what makes it so beautiful to us. It is that interest that makes us care about the thing at all. And I think in many ways he is right. I don’t tend to think that things are beautiful unless I find some interest or stake in them. Nietzsche says that this allows us to experience things, “first hand”.

This experiencing of things first hand is what Kant himself calls experience, and says he in the critique of pure reason is the actual truth. It seems like this “interest” that Nietzsche talks about here is along the same lines of what Heidegger will come to mean by the word, “Dasein” in “being and time”. This Dasein is the ground of existence, and it means to care. We care for things and about people. But, This section from Nietzsche struck a chord with me. It seems like what Nietzsche is saying makes sense with what Heidegger says about objects that are immediate for us. He says that when objects are not being used or employed by us we forget about them, until we need them. It seems here that what Nietzsche is saying is that to find a thing beautiful we must have it in our immediate interest we must in some way be caring about it to find it beautiful. It seems like Heidegger would agree with him, and I know that I do. It seemed like an interesting connection I wanted to share.

Intelligence as an adaptation.

I am still intrigued by the fact that Nietzsche does not seem to identify intelligence as a quality of the Ubermensch. This appeared to me as a major problem that our class had with his argument, as we are all attempting at least to be intelligent beings. I think this points to Nietzsche's own understanding of the Ubermensch and makes a strong argument for his own belief that he himself is not one of these noble ruling creatures. The Ubermensch is not intelligent because the Ubermensch does not need intelligence, rather its superiority transcends the need for the slaves' adaptation that is intellect.

The slaves developed this clever skill in order to use the forces around them to be able to overpower the noble class, thus becoming the complex creatures that we have become, always looking at things in layers of existence. It is how we understand the world to work because it is the way that we ourselves have made the world. An Ubermensch does not need to look to the forces around itself, because it itself is a force. That would be like expecting the wind to look to the other elements before acting and attempting to figure out a way to use them. It just doesnt happen. The primal force that drives the very wind would be the same force that I believe we would find within the Ubermensch. These creatures are the perfection of humanity and thus they would fit perfectly within the perfection of nature without the need of extra man-made skills such as intelligence, rather they would just BE, and in that act of being their wills would be as unstoppable as the forces of nature that develop our world on a regular basis, nearly God like, but not in the Judea Christian sense of the word.

I dunno, Just an idea of why intelligence isn't included, what do you guys think?

The Evil of Equality

Is morality a handicap? Is equality actually an evil?

I ask these questions in reference to Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals. After reading the first two essays and taking part in our class discussions, these ideas are what I have come to garner from Nietzsche’s work. He seems to be arguing that our system of morals is seeking equality—and he’s right—and that forcing unequal things to be equal is actually what is wrong with humanity. Our laws (at least in the United States) seem to seek equality for most, if not all people. Even simple laws such as a speed limit on the highway seek to equalize humanity, especially interstates with both minimum and maximum speed limits. Those with faster cars are expected to drive slower and those with slower cars are expected to drive above a certain speed or stay off the interstate. These laws are seeking equality in the way we drive. Nietzsche might argue that before the development of our system of morals, before we all became slaves, those with faster cars drove as fast as they could to demonstrate their speed, just like the strong display acts of strength to demonstrate that strength. However, because of our system of morality, those who are faster are told to move slower so they do not outdo the slower ones.

Is asking us to abide by laws that attempt to equalize us really just handicapping our natural abilities? This question came about when I started to see some similarities in Nietzsche and a short story by Kurt Vonnegut called “Harrison Bergeron.” The story is set in the future, in the year 2081, so Vonnegut seems to be suggesting that this is a kind of world our society is headed towards. Vonnegut writes, “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” If you’ve ever read this story, you know that most of the characters have been given handicaps to make them equal to everyone else. A man with a high intelligence is given an ear radio that he is required by law to wear at all times that sounds loud, obtrusive noises every 20 seconds or so in his ear to keep him from “taking unfair advantage” of his own mind. Basically, he is prevented from being able to think for too long so that he can’t actually use his intelligence to work anything out in his mind.

While obviously, our world has not yet come to these extremes, but what I feel like Vonnegut and Nietzsche are both saying is that what is really wrong is not that some people have more advanced abilities than others, but that they are not allowed to use them because of our morality that seeks equality of all people. So is morality really an evil?

Freedom of Faith

For many, the Church seems somewhat universal. At the very least it seems that the holdings and teachings are universal in the Church community. Those who believe should all pretty much believe the same universal things. Kierkegaard does not agree with that idea. He argues that having faith in the Christian church is rather objective because we haven’t really taken a leap of faith. It can pretty much be said that none of us have had an experience like Abraham, which was a prime example of the most ultimate leap of faith. Therefore, Kierkegaard would say, the Church can’t really be so personal. The only thing we have to guide us in our faith-based journey through the Christian church is the teachings and text of the Bible, and supposedly our own personal faith. Without having made that leap of faith, we still might as well consider ourselves to be outsiders. We can understand the doctrines etc. but we cannot necessarily have had a strong enough experience to draw us into the faith.
Faith really is very important to Kierkegaard. He argues that we “can get no further than faith”. By this he means that faith is very enlightening. It exposes us to the realm of the infinite. By having such strong faith we will believe in the infinity of the afterlife. As I was reading this I was thinking back on some of the writers that I read in my Existentialism class. Many of those figures, who are contemporaries of Kierkegaard simply believe in finitude.The only thing they might say is infinite is the universe, but they don’t really even know if they can guarantee that. For example, Sartre is very well known for his focus on the finality of life. He suggests that faith in God is evidence of someone fleeing his freedom. This means that he thinks that believing in God is taking the cowardly way out. Sartre would argue that by putting your faith in God you are not taking full responsibility for your choices, which is a huge deal in existential philosophy. You are ignoring your obvious finitude by transferring your responsibilities elsewhere.
Kierkegaard would not approve of this. He would retaliate by arguing about how we still do have freedom. We have the freedom to make our decisions yet these decisions will aid us after death. Therefore we are not escaping our responsibilities at all. We are even taking them more seriously because there is the fear of the eternal consequences.